Short Sale on a Church that used to be residential.

[Eran Matalon]

Hey everyone, 

I currently want to buy a foreclosure property that used to be residential and is now a church. My end goal is to sell it as a residential. The bank would not except a Deed in Lieu from the owner, probably because its too much of a head ache for them. What is the process do to this short sale? Is it smarter to do a short sale as a church or to  first convert it back to residential and than proceed? If anyone has any experience in this case or has done something similar to this before i would like to hear how you went forward with it. 

The property is located in NYC.

Thanks!